Biases

About a year ago I watched a video of Cassie Jaye.  For anyone who doesn’t know she is the one behind the film, “The Red Pill”.

Now, this isn’t a post about feminism, but something she said in a while talking about her journey in the movie.  She went out and met with the enemy and did something very intriguing.

Its listening to what others have to say.

I can hear everyone saying we already do that.  No, we don’t.

You see, Cassie spoke of her journey and her biases.  She would go and interview men of the men’s movement (ie the enemy of feminism) and let them talk.  But she didn’t hear what they said.  She then came back to the interviews and then wrote down what they said at a later time.  Over the course of a year she came to an interesting realization.

She not only didn’t hear what they said, but injected words to make make it appear they were counter to her own biases.

This injection is something we all do.  We don’t hear what is said, we hear what we wish to hear.

This is why we can take two politicians of opposite ideologies have them say the exact same things and different people will agree or disagree with them.  They hear what they wish to hear based upon their biases.

In sports we called it the ‘rose-colored glasses’, or fanboy, where a person cannot see beyond their biases no matter what facts are presented.

Even knowing about it doesn’t make one immune to the dangers is poses.  Add in the fact we dislike being wrong and we only dig in along with our beliefs.

Its why things come down to a screaming match and name calling.

I wish I could say I never do such things but I’ll be the first to admit I can do this.  I hate myself when I do and have a hard time admitting I was wrong.  But its something I’ve seen everyone do.

Just because you were right in one argument, doesn’t mean you are right in the next one.

So next time, take a look at the comment, or what they said, and give it a second before making a knee-jerk reaction.  You could avoid the embarrassment of becoming the next YouTube sensation.